22 April 2014

Turkish Wine of the Week - Ancyra Muscat

In an effort to start drinking more white wines to match the warming weather I picked up a bottle of Ancyra Muscat at Carrefour. And fell in love!



Muscat grapes are of course more widely known for being made into dessert wines but you can find the occasional "dry" Muscat. Although semi-sweet is really far more accurate a descriptor.

With a pale straw color with a delicate, floral nose, a muscat's flavor profile includes: orange blossoms, honey, honeysuckle, basil, roses, mint, bergamont, lemon balm, daisies, grapefruit, and melon. Daises, that's a new one.

To me this is a really interesting flavor profile and I would have liked to been able to pick out the basil. However what I did get (the orange blossom, honey, and honeysuckle mostly) makes this one of those wines that's going to be dangerous for me to keep around (and naturally I'm already 2/3 way through a second bottle already) because it is infinitely drinkable. The orange blossoms in particular really jumped out at me and reminds me that the next time someone is visiting from Lebanon, I really need to ask for a bottle of orange blossom water...



Like many semi and sweet wines, this goes pretty well with spicy foods and, you know, it's pretty darn good on its own. I see myself sipping a rather lot of this on my terrace this summer!

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